Bulldogs win thriller over Bellefonte boys

By rscaife
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Updated: January 17, 2017

By Kenny Varner

BELLEFONTE – Like two prize fighters battling for the title, the Bellefonte boys and Jersey Shore basketball teams went toe-to-toe, punch for punch, back and forth to a full 32-minute nail biter.
Facing three Bellefonte defenders, the Bulldogs’ Jake Butzler went up strong and bounced in the game winner and the buzzer, going home with a much needed 54-53 victory.
“We needed this one in a big one. Hopefully we can get some energy out of this one because we have a big week ahead of us,” Jersey Shore coach Scott Munro said. “We talked before the game that we had a let down last game. We had. Wet low intensity. I thought tonight if nothing else we were very energetic, we were talking on the floor, we were sharing the basketball. All the things that we do , we did well tonight.”
Leading the way for the Bulldogs was Butzler with a hard fought 20-point effort. Teammates Luke Laybach and Junior Armstrong rounded out the double-digit scorers with a 13-point and an 11-point effort, respectively.
Bellefonte also had double digit scorers. They were Caleb Rockey and Ben McCartney, who both tallied 13 on the night.
Going into the final stanza, the Red Raiders held onto a slim 42-41 lead.
Inside man Logan Mathieu got the scoring started as he put Bellefonte up 44-41 on a strong run to the hoop.
Jersey Shore battled back going on a 5-0 run thanks to a triple by Laybach and two foul shots by Butzler. Butzler had 10 of his 20 points in the final stanza.
The Bulldogs kept rolling along adding two more to take a huge 50-44 advantage with 3:25 left.
Two foul shots by McCartney ended the Red Raider scoring drought as he cut the lead to four points.
Minutes later, Butzler put his team back up by six hitting two more from the charity stripe.
A triple by Adam Armstrong cut it to one at 52-51 with less than two minutes to go.
On the following Jersey Shore possession, Armstrong dove to the floor on a loose ball and called time out.
On Bellefonte’s next two possessions Armstrong and McCartney hit 2-of-4 to take back the lead with 15.5 seconds left.
But it would be enough time for Butzler to hit the game winning shot at the buzzer, taking home the one-point victory.
“They played hard to the last second and to the buzzer. I thought we did a lot of good things tonight but I also thought we made too many little mistakes,” Bellefonte coach Kris Glunt said. “It’s a tough one.
In the second quarter, the Red Raiders took a 29-27 lead into halftime.
The shoot out began as soon as the begin buzzer sounded to start the game as both teams scored 17 points each in the opening period.
In the JV contest, the Red Raiders played a very strong game by beating Jersey Shore 51-16.